> About The Authors

Thomas Kochman and Jean Mavrelis have been diversity trainers for over 20 years, helping major companies better understand their increasingly diverse workforce.

As founders of Kochman Mavrelis Associates, Thomas and Jean focus on communication styles, social experiences and cultural values that shape behavior for different groups of people. They are authors of Corporate Tribalism.

Apart from turning affirmative action policies and programs on its heels, the Supreme Court majority and Robert\’s strictly process oriented view of discrimination –without regard to motives, circumstances and outcomes — is from a social and practical standpoint, useless. The question that people who care about this issue grapple with regularly is precisely over when it is appropriate to take race into account and when not. And that means considering all kinds of social qualifiers–ultimately perhaps, whether it makes someone else\’s life easier or more difficult.

For example, a faculty friend of mine who lived in a predominantly white community occasionally had students stay with them. One black student who stayed with them wanted to begin each morning with a run through the neighborhood. To accommodate him, and as a precautionary move, my friend went to several houses in the neighborhood that were along the route the student took to tell them that a black student was staying with them, and described what he looked like, knowing that if he didn’t let them know that up front, the student might otherwise be put at risk. Read more »